Tentatio ab Mei Cor
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: Danny's crying out for freedom from society's hatred, for acceptance of who he is, despite what he is. He wants nothing more than for you to see him as he truly is, and to understand what he stands for, what he fights for. Will you open your heart to him?


**Disclaimer: **_Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International Inc. "Separated Self" is the property of Saliva and Island Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

* * *

"Tentatio ab Mei Cor" is Latin, and though my use of the language is choppy and probably conjugated and organized all wrong, the words roughly translate to "Judgment of My Heart" or "Judgement of My Soul", depeding on the translation you use for the word _cor_. It means both heart and soul.

* * *

**If there's a God at heaven's door **

**Do you think he wants me anymore?**

I have power beyond my wildest dreams, strength that any body builder would kill for, and abilities and that no human should possess...and yet, I do. All because of a little accident in my parents' lab, I'm something that shouldn't even exist.

**It's all left up to circumstance**

I've given so much, and ask for so little in return, but it seems that what I want is too much in the eyes of the rest of the world.

In all honesty, is it that hard for me to earn your acceptance? Is it too much to ask for? What is the price that I have to pay just to be able to hope that one day you'll see me for what I really am? Is the price I have to pay due in blood, or is it my life that you want from me?

**A whole life filled**

**With second chances**

**Pounded in like nails into my floor**

You don't know what it's like to be me. You have no idea what I have to go through every day. You don't know what it takes to walk the line between light and dark, to balance on a razor's edge against a precarious fall, knowing that just a moment's hesitation, a second glance, a split second break of focus will drop you into a world of nightmares from which you know you cannot escape.

**Everybody hates**

**And everybody dies**

But then again, how can I expect you to understand? Unlike me, you're not half-ghost.

**Begin to separate**

**A world that's full of lies**

Nobody seems to understand what it takes to limit myself. No matter how hard I try to explain it, I just can't find the words. How am I supposed to tell a person that if I really wanted to, I could kill them without a thought? That if I really wanted to, I could turn the world into a giant Popsicle with almost no effort on my part? Saying stuff like that would just make me appear more like the threatening ghost that people sometimes want to believe me to be, and that is the complete antithesis of the image that I want to exude upon the public eye.

**Separate yourself**

**Separated**

**To separated self**

I'm still human, after all, so I still have the basic understanding of the idioms of right and wrong. Heck, there have been a few times where I've taxed my system to the point that even in ghost form, I suddenly find myself having no choice but to breathe.

**Sure, there's a better place for me**

**A place where I can spend eternity**

I just wish there was someone who could sympathize with me, help me understand what it means to be half-ghost, be there for me when I need the advice of someone who's been there before. But I know that we'll never be a reality for me. As it stands, Vlad and Danielle are the only other half ghosts, and it would take the apocalypse before I'd do anything remotely close to going to Vlad for anything, and Danielle...well, she's even younger than I am, and she hasn't seen the darker side of what being this way means for us other than what she seen through Vlad.

**A place where there is no more pain**

**And there is sunshine always raining**

**And there is no one walking**

**On their knees**

What do I have to do to prove to you that I mean what I say? I'm more than what the media wants you think of me as, and all you have to do is look a little deeper than just the surface to see everything about me that they don't care to show you.

I don't want to spend my life trying to find some secret path to your acceptance of who and what I am, but without that acceptance, I feel as if everything I do is worth absolutely nothing, and I don't want to spend my life being disregarded and hated.

**Everybody hates**

**And everybody dies**

I can understand the fear of some people when they look at me because I represent something that they have been taught to fear all their lives, something that is unnatural, against the natural order of things, but it still confuses me how they can look at me that way after I have risked everything for all their sakes. There was a lot that I risked losing if I couldn't get the ghosts to help me, and I know from what I saw just how close we really had been. A couple moments more, and that razor's edge would have disappeared into world devoid of everything I loved, everything that I held so dear to my heart.

**Begin to separate**

**A world that's full of lies**

Part of me often wonders what happened to Vlad to make him the self-centered, egotistical fruit loop that I've had to deal with pretty much ever since I got my powers. When you can get Mom and Dad in the mood, they love talking about their college days, and Vlad seemed like a really nice kid back then. He was outgoing, inventive, and all-around great guy to be friends with.

**Separate**

**Separate yourself**

Even for the first month or so after the accident in the lab, he was relatively the same person, though he spent more time interacting over the phone than in person. If there's one thing that Mom and Dad both agree on, it's the fact that Vlad has always been a little conceited, so hiding behind the comfort of a phone was how he kept in touch with what he considered to be the outside world.

**Separated**

**To separated self**

**Separated**

Both of them believe that his silence was his ghost half starting to take control, and since Vlad, despite his ego, had very low self-confidence, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that Plasmius was in control more often than Vlad during his later years of life. After all, Dad, despite his feelings of animosity towards his ex-best friend, said that when he met Vlad during freshman orientation, the youth had even mentioned that all he really wanted was to do something that would leave an ineffable mark on society and the world in general.

**Separated**

**Separate yourself**

I don't think what happened during the Disasteroid incident is what he had in mind all those years ago when he told my father that.

**Separated**

**To separated self**

We all battle with our own inner demons on a daily basis, and sometimes we win, while other times, we lose. We all have our vices, those little things in our lives that follow us like an ominous black cloud, invading our thoughts and convincing us that we're only straying a _little_ off the path. Whether it's gambling or food, cigarettes or beer, video games or online chat rooms, there are better things that we could do with our lives than fall into those kinds of behaviors.

In that, I'm just like you. I have to walk away from the promise of a 'better' life because I know, in the long run, I'll only end up destroying myself rather than making anything better for anyone.

**My angels**

**They surround me**

**My demons**

**They have found me**

It's not just the outside world than wants to label me. Oh no, it's also come from within. Without words, without thoughts, the entity that is bonded with me offers me the limitless paths to what I want, despite the price that others will have to pay. I know, deep inside, what I am capable of, and with so little, I could be someone recognized in this world, but I will not let myself stoop to that level. One of my kind already did so, and by his own actions cast himself out as a threat to the people of the world, viewed with scorn and avarice to the point that he, should he ever dare to return, would be destroyed on sight.

**My demons**

**They surround me**

**My angels**

**They have found me now**

That's the one thing that I can't stand, the fact that ghosts _have_ to have that single point of fixation towards something, and they will pursue it with a restless hunger, blind to the devastation and horror they leave in their wake. In some ways, I'm sorry to say that my point of fixation is being the hero because, sometimes, it drives me to the point that doing what I believe is right is the first and only thing on my mind, and it takes a lot of mental self-control to maintain any sort of clear-headedness when I'm in the middle of a fight.

**My angels**

**They surround me**

**My demons**

**They have found me now**

I've seen what I can become if I misuse my power, and I promised my friends and my family that I would never allow myself to become that, no matter what happened to me or them. I wouldn't dare taint this thing that we have, even if being a half-ghost with ghost hunters for parents is a bit hypocritical in the eyes of some. There is something great in this gift that I have been given. I only need the chance to show you what that is.

But you're too blinded by hate and distrust to find out why I can do this day after day, aren't you?

**Separated**

**Separated**

**Separate yourself**

Would you accept me if I wasn't part-ghost? Would you even know my name, let alone be alive to hate me, if I was just normal, plain, everyday Danny Fenton?

**Separated**

**To separated self**

**Separated**

Can you even see how much you've hurt me, or do you fail to care because I'm different? Because I'm a freak of nature that should have been caged and put on display rather than treated like the person I truly am?

**Separated**

**Separate yourself**

How can you be so blind? How can you follow the crowd so willingly? You have the power to make your own choices, but you let the world make them for you. Can't you be like me for just one moment? Step out of the line of conformity. See the world as it truly is, with individuals all trying to be someone. See yourself for who you dream to be, not what society or your family wants you to be, and strive towards making that dream a reality. It's not really as hard as you might think.

**Separated**

**To separated self**

Just for once in your life...Open your eyes, and truly _see_.

**Separate yourself**

**Separated self**


End file.
